In the end, you will always kneel
by JoMiSm
Summary: What if the Avengers lost and Loki won? How will they try to win back the planet? Will they succeed? Obviously this is an AU, and a rather late one at that, directly after the Avengers. Disclaimer: own nothing.
1. Chapter 1

_**Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state?**_

_**It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity.**_

_**You were made to be ruled. **_

_**In the end, you will always kneel. **_

_**-Loki Laufeyson**_

* * *

They lost the war. It was as simple as that. There were so many variables, so many different things, that just toppled in a domino effect... The Council never sent the bomb to Manhattan; Fury found a way to convince them not to. In turn, Tony didn't send it through the portal; the Avengers didn't kill the mothership. Bruce didn't trust himself enough to come back and try to help. He stayed away at his unknown location.

But in the end, it all came down to Natasha's one missed opportunity.

She saw her partner being attacked on a neighboring rooftop when she was going to get the scepter, and she turned for a split second to shoot at the alien-she got it, of course-but it was just enough time for her to be blindsided by another Chitari. She was tackled and ended up _very_ injured. Her partner fought off her assailant and got her out of there...and as they walked, or rather, limped away, the city fell behind them.

Five of the six Avengers got out of there alive-Bruce being still somewhere unknown-but they almost instantly had to go into hiding. The world was against them now.

Loki controlled everyone.

Everyone.

Me.

You.

The Army, Navy, Marines.

SHIELD.

Everyone.

* * *

When the Avengers go underground, they literally go _underground. _Everyone called Tony eccentric back in the pre-war days, but now everyone was happy for his top-secret zombie apocalypse bunker. It was really meant for two, three at the most (that was the amount of beds he had, anyway), but there were six people there: Tony, Pepper (who he'd rescued immediately when the battle went south), Thor, Natasha, Clint, and Steve. They would have immediately began a plan, but Natasha was injured. If it was a normal, or even _bad _injury, she would've ignored it. But it was bad enough that she was bedridden, floating in and out of consciousness. While Tony was fully stocked in medical supplies, no one was a doctor. It would have been extremely useful if Bruce was there. However, he wasn't, so they tried the best that they could.

That is where we find our beloved heroes: fallen and struggling to recuperate. But recuperate they would, and once they did, they would retaliate.

Because if they can't protect this Earth... well, you know the quote.

* * *

Clint quietly opened the door to the room that Natasha was in. It should technically be called the master bedroom. Tony had very graciously given her the largest of the beds (which she would feel grateful for if she wasn't unconscious or in pain half of the time) and she'd been lying there, in pain, for almost a day already. He poked his head into her (current) room.

"Tasha?" he whispered. "You awake?"

There was a faint rustle from the bed as Natasha looked up at him. She'd mainly gotten stitches (though she probably really needed surgery) and she was suffering from multiple lacerations to areas around her stomach. She also had major blood loss, but that couldn't be fixed. The same thing that was keeping her alive-the enhancers-kept her from a transfusion. (Because, yes, it's Tony Stark's bunker and he could make that happen.)

"Mm-hmm." she murmured. She sounded sleepy. Her green eyes, normally sparkling, were weak. "What have you all planned to do about Loki?" she asked immediately.

Clint's eyes flashed at the name. He was barely out of mind control himself. "They're...brainstorming." he said carefully. They'd had several ideas, but Clint'd shot them all down with his practical mind and knowledge of a (modern) war zone.

"I should be helping." Natasha said. She realized-why was she not helping? and started climbing slowly out of bed. Pepper's spare clothes that she'd borrowed were too long, but that didn't matter.

"No! What are you doing, Nat?" Clint protested.

"I should be helping." she repeated insistently. She was standing, then he was beside her, one arm under her shoulders.

"No! Natasha, you're going to hurt yourself." Clint protested.

"I will keep getting up until you let me go." she said, stubbornly glaring at him. There was a moment of stubborn silence, then he grinned; that was the Natasha that he knew.

"Fine. But you are staying on the couch and you are not allowed to move around!" Clint sighed.

* * *

They walked in separately, Natasha being too proud to walk in being supported by Clint. The living room was by no means small, but it wasn't as spacious as the one in Tony's tower. There were two couches. Natasha walked over to one of them with her head held high, refusing to acknowledge the pain. The teammates were instantly protesting, but she ignored them.

"So," she said, sitting down. "What do you have?" she said, gesturing to the papers on the table that were obviously war plans.

There was a hesitant silence by the guys, but someone had to answer her. "I don't really know..." Tony said. "None of the plans seem to be working out."

Natasha sighed and looked around at the boys. She was Strike Team Delta's main mission organizer (generally, unless Phil felt generous and did it himself) so she had some skills in that department. "Well, then, it looks like we have some work to do." Natasha said.

* * *

_**Yeah, Natasha was major in the Avengers, you see? The whole battle came down to that, really. But she can make up for that circumstance by coming up with a plan, or at least a start of a plan. **_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Welcome back! As stated, this is AU, so there will be changes in the story. Starting with Bruce Banner's story, because obviously if he ran off somewhere his story has changed. **_

* * *

"What do you think that we need to do, then?" Tony asked. He was fine with giving the reins to Natasha for a while, provided that she didn't hurt herself. They were running low on ideas, here. And time was of the essence.

"Well, look." Natasha said. Her voice was still weak, but she put authority behind the words. "You." she pointed at Thor, the Prince of Asgard, who he didn't know well, but she knew _enough_ about.

"Yes, Lady Natasha?" he asked. He was weary from the battle and the loss and he sounded it. His voice was rough; it stood to reason that he'd been worrying about Jane, who was God-knows-where.

Natasha didn't even protest at the name, though she would've liked to. "You are a Prince where you come from, right?" He nodded. "And what do you defend that kingdom with?"

The question seemed too simple. Thor wondered it had some hidden meaning that he was missing; the humans were good at that. "...the Warriors...?"

Natasha nodded. "Since this involves one of yours, could you not go ask your father to borrow them?" Thor thought seriously for a moment; his father wouldn't want to just leave Asgard undefended, but he was sure that Odin would find some way to help them. It was better than nothing.

"That is an excellent idea, Lady Natasha!" Thor said, his eyes sparkling with hope. "But there is one problem. The bifrost is broken and we do not have the tesseract. In order for me to get back, I'm going to have to call on father's magic, and he won't be able to reach me here. I must be somewhere...open."

"Then we must get you to an open area." Natasha said. The boys were glad that, after trying to figure something out for hours and hours, Natasha seemed to have some clue of what she was doing. They did not notice that Natasha hesitated for half of a moment before speaking again. "And I think that we need Dr. Banner back."

There was silence for a moment before Steve said "We don't know where he is. I'm sure that we can find you another doctor, Miss Romanoff..." He was ever the gentleman.

Natasha let out a short laugh. "No, I'm fine without a doctor." Her tone went serious. "I want him for... the other guy."

Thor was the first to speak up, seeing as he was the one to witness her get slammed into a wall by the Hulk. "Lady Natasha, not to question your reasoning, but is this not the same beast that tried to 'smash' you?" Clint looked over at Natasha, slightly alarmed; he had only known that Hulk had attacked, not that she was the one that the attack was directed at.

"Yes," Natasha said. "But I believe he can control it some, or at least be pointed at the right thing to smash."

"And you know this _how_?" Tony asked. He wanted to believe in Bruce as much as anyone, but he had a logical mind; he needed to be convinced.

Natasha hesitated for a second, loath to tell any of SHIELD's secrets. It took her a moment to come to the conclusion that it wouldn't matter; SHIELD had fallen. "We tracked him as he fell and then left. He was heading straight at a populated area, but he changed his trajectory mid-fall and landed in an abandoned warehouse. He went north, very far north, before we stopped tracking him. He passed through several sparsely populated areas without reverting to Dr. Banner, probably because he couldn't calm down enough to change back, but no one was injured. People didn't have time to report seeing him before things went south." Natasha said.

"So he didn't hurt anyone... coincidence?" Clint asked.

Natasha shook her head, her fiery curls bobbing. If she didn't have such a serious expression, she'd have looked cute. "No. There were plenty of opportunities for him to smash someone if he'd wanted to. I'm confident in him." she said.

There would've been more protests, but Tony spoke. "Well, I think that's a good idea, Nattie. And he can't make our situation any _worse... _another ally will be handy."

It made sense.

"So, objectives: get Thor to an open place without being spotted and get him to Asgard and find Bruce Banner." Natasha said.

There were several weak points in her plan (What if they were caught traveling on either occasion? What if Bruce didn't want to help?) but it was infinitely better than doing nothing. These people were go-getters, not sit-arounders.

They were ready.

* * *

_(Ironman helmet spins on screen) Meanwhile, in downtown New York... (ironman helmet spins away) _

Loki stood on the roof of Stark Tower, now 'A' tower, looking over the city that never sleeps with his scepter glowing blue in his hand. Going against its name, New York's streets for as far as the eye could see were empty, desolate. Most of the people'd been turned, their eyes glowing bright blue and their hearts belonging to him, but several had gotten away. After all, it's a big city and an even bigger world; though the chitari had defeated all of it, they couldn't turn but so many people at a time. He knew that there was a resistance. He just did not find them worthy opponents, not worth his worry.

He also knew that the Avengers had not died in the battle.

A man, young, in his twenties, appeared silently at the door to the roof. He would be considered handsome if he didn't have the terrifying, unnatural blue eyes.

"Any news on the 'Avengers?'" He said the name with mockery. The team had been a failure and any attempts to dethrone him would also fail. They no longer had SHIELD behind them, nor the police, navy, air force... they were just five people, since the sixth had been too cowardly to even show to the battle.

"None, my lord." The shadows under the man's eyes were prominent.

Loki's demeanor darkened. Though he knew, rationally, that they couldn't win with the whole world against them, he still wanted to know their whereabouts. "Dismissed." he said.

They had to be found.

* * *

_**Did you like? This is my least reviewed fic so it stands to reason that no one really likes it. :( **_


End file.
